The Centre on Sunday released Rs. 149.87 crore to Telangana as part of devolution of funds and grants under the recommendations of the 13{+t}{+h}Finance Commission.
The five-year term of the Finance Commission will come to an end along with the closure of current financial year on Tuesday.
According to a press release issued by the Union Finance Ministry, Rs. 76.77 crore of the total amount released was grant for Panchayat Raj institutions, Urban Local Bodies and special areas and the remaining Rs. 73.1 crore was devolution from the Central tax collection to the PRIs, ULBs and special areas.
The State government had estimated the Finance Commission grants to the State during 2014-15 at over Rs. 3,139 crore, but as admitted by Finance Minister E. Rajender in the Assembly recently, there had been a huge shortfall in the expected funds from the Centre.
Minister for Panchayat Raj and IT K.T. Rama Rao stated that the grants to Panchayat Raj Department alone were cut drastically to Rs. 780 crore out of Rs. 1,300 crore projected initially.
However, for 2015-16 the State government is expecting only Rs. 1,153 crore as per the recommendations of the 14{+t}{+h}Finance Commission, in spite of the Centre’s decision to devolve 42 per cent funds to States from the Central kitty against the 32 per cent share recommended by the previous finance panel.
